DUBLIN, Ohio - Muirfield Village, the course that Jack built, has been the playground of the old Tiger Woods - pre-scandal, pre-neck, pre-ex coach. He has won the Memorial Tournament's crystal four times, including three years in a row from '99 to '01 and again in '09, with three other top 10s in 11 total appearances. If there was ever a place to regain his form, this would be it.

And maybe it will be.

Playing in a nine-hole pre-tournament skins game that served as his first public appearance since he pulled out of the Players Championship with a previously undisclosed neck injury, Woods looked more in control of both his game and his emotions Wednesday than he has all year.

The smile coming off the 18th hole was genuine, a sign he thinks his game is good enough to win this week.

"Yeah, I think so," he said. "I feel very good with what I'm working on. I feel very comfortable. I hit the ball pretty decent today."

Unlike Quail Hollow, where he missed the cut, and the Players, where he hit a couple of the ugliest shots of his career, Woods seemed to know where the ball was going. He came out of the box by snapping up the first two skins and had two birdies and an eagle in the first four holes, carving a 4-iron onto a par-5 in two, draining a 30-footer and out-driving his four playing partners by 35 yards on one hole. He ended up winning six of the nine skins in his group, the last six in a chip-off.

"He's ready to compete," Zach Johnson said. "He's swinging at it hard and firm and compressing the golf ball. To my eye, it doesn't look like there are any issues."

"I think he lost a little concentration in the middle, but it looked good," Jim Furyk said. "I never really thought he was in all that much trouble. I'm trying to figure out what the heck you guys have been writing about.

"I'm not a mind reader or looking in a crystal ball but it's just a matter of time till he starts playing well," Furyk said. "Whether it's this week or the U.S. Open or three months from now, it's just a matter of time. He's the best player that we've seen since Jack Nicklaus and arguably when he finishes maybe the best ever, so it's just a matter of time."

With the U.S. Open at Pebble Beach just two weeks away, the golf world is getting impatient. Some are wondering if Woods will ever regain his dominant form and whether Nicklaus' record of 18 major titles is safe. But again, there were signs Wednesday. For one, he was a little surlier at his press conference and he seemed to take that demeanor with him on the course. When one media member who has been extra-critical of him, asked why he hasn't been more forthcoming about his injuries, he got the cold shoulder.

"You don't need to know," Woods said, not letting on whether the "you" was singular or plural.

"Actually, my neck feels pretty good ... still not where I want it to be, but the inflammation has calmed down," he said. "I've got range of motion again. It's a little bit sore after a good hard day of practice, but I can recover for the next day, which is good. The past probably five, six days, I've been going at it pretty good."

Woods also said the injury had a lot to do with his performance and that the treatment has freed him up.

Of course, it's sometimes hard to sort the wheat from the chaff with Woods. After all, before he withdrew from the Players, he said he was 100%.

Then he said what he feared was a "bulging disk" was bothering him since before the Masters but had nothing to do with his infamous crash into the fire hydrant, which he said at the Masters had left him with a sore neck and, in fact, left him with much more.